US HISTORY MIDTERM EXAM

The Articles of Confederation 1781-1787

• The first constitution of the United States, adopted in 1777 and ratified in 1781.

• It created a loose alliance (confederation) of the 13 original states, giving most power to the states and very little to the central (national) government.

• First federal form of government  

• Questions of state representation  

• Written during the American Revolution, when the colonies had just declared independence from Britain (1776).

• The new states wanted a form of government that avoided a strong central authority, since they had just rebelled against British tyranny.

• The Articles reflected fear of centralized power and a strong desire to protect state sovereignty.

 

• State Power  

• Weak Central government  

• Federal congress (can’t raise and impose taxes) 

• Foreign policy and inter-state disputes 

• No taxes nor army (no national army) 

• No executive or president (too similar to a monarch) 

• No judiciary (no supreme court

• It established a functioning government to unite the states during the Revolution.

• Allowed the U.S. to negotiate the Treaty of Paris (1783), which ended the Revolutionary War

Why it fails/ Long-term significance:

• Exposed serious weaknesses in having a weak central government (no power to tax, regulate trade, or enforce laws).

• Led to economic instability and issues like Shays’ Rebellion (1786–87).

• Its failures directly influenced the Constitutional Convention of 1787, where the U.S. Constitution replaced the Articles, creating a stronger federal system that still shapes American government today.

Massive debt, congress can’t pay it off because they can’t raise taxes 

• Lost their trade market with British) 

Shay’s Rebellion 1786  

Daniel Shay was a farmer who had a vote, but other friends' merchants don’t own land. Masethchutts imposes taxes on those who don’t own land, Shay says that’s what British did and now we’re doing this  

• Sensed nothing changed, so Shay and laborers rose up and rebelled  

Clara Barton

• Former teacher 

• Believed her talent and skills could serve union army  in the CIVIL WAR

• American equivalent to florence nightengale  

• Known as "the angel of the battlefield” 

• travels with the union army and co creates the American Red cross 

• The Sanitary Commission 

• travels from battlefield to battlefield being a nurse  

• at the frontlines of the battles  

• At battle of antietam she is so close a bullet goes through her sleeve and kills the soldier she’s working on  

 Significance:

• Provided critical medical care and comfort to soldiers during the war.

• Improved battlefield nursing standards and organization of medical supplies.

• Helped thousands of families identify missing or deceased soldiers

• Set a precedent for civilian involvement in emergency response and volunteerism.

• Her legacy continues through modern disaster response systems and public health initiatives inspired by her work.

The Emancipation Proclamation

An executive order issued by U.S. President Abraham Lincoln during the American Civil War. It declared that all enslaved people in Confederate-held territories were to be freed.

Lincoln’s concerns 

• Does he have the constitutional right to abolish slavery (powers of the president) 

• Fearful of the backlash and public opinion of abolition 

Issued during the Civil War (1861–1865), when the Union (North) fought the Confederacy (South), which had seceded largely to preserve slavery.

Lincoln’s main goal was to preserve the Union, but by mid-war, ending slavery became both a moral cause and a strategic military move.

Significance:

Freed enslaved people only in Confederate-controlled areas (south), not in border states or Union-held regions, so it did not immediately free all enslaved people.

Shifted the war’s purpose from just preserving the Union to fighting for human freedom.

• Weakened the Confederacy by encouraging enslaved people to escape and by discouraging European countries (like Britain and France) from supporting the South.

• Layed the foundation for the 13th Amendment (1865), which abolished slavery entirely in theory

• Redefined the meaning of freedom and equality in America

The Indian Removal Act 

• Racist, they’re subhuman and should have no rights 

• Growing need of Land for whites, that indigenous peoples have  

 

• Law passed by the U.S. Congress in 1830 and signed by President Andrew Jackson. It authorized the federal government to forcefully relocate Indigenous peoples living east of the Mississippi River to lands west of it 

• Given to bad land by whites

• Passed during a period of westward expansion and the belief in Manifest Destiny—the idea that Americans were destined to expand across the continent.

• White settlers and the U.S. government wanted Indigenous lands for farming, cotton production, and settlement.  

• Despite the Cherokee Nation winning a Supreme Court case (Worcester v. Georgia, 1832) affirming their sovereignty, Jackson ignored the ruling and continued with removal.

Reaction: 

• Seminoles and indigenous peoples respond violently  

• Terrorist attacks against whites  

Significance: 

A geoncide, forced relation from ancestral lands, resulted in thousands of deaths due to disease and starvation during the journey known as the Trail of Tears

• Set a precedent for continued U.S. policies of displacement and assimilation toward Indigenous peoples.

• Contributed to a lasting legacy of trauma, loss, and mistrust between Native nations and the U.S. government

John Rolfe

• 30-year-old widower, English man initially went to Carribean 

• Comes to Jamestown and marries Pocahontas creating a blood alliance between English and their tribe  

• He’s 30, she's 14 

• 1616 he takes her to England, and she dies there from pneumonia  

• 20 years later she's brought back to be buried with ancestors in Jamestown

Tobacco 

• Rolfe brings tobacco seeds to Jamestown 

• Tobacco becomes the ‘black gold’ bringing England its wealth 

• Popular as a medicine and for recreational use 

• Tobacco is a labor intensive crop 

• Colonists didn’t want to do the work to harvest it 

Leads to origins of slavery 

• White indentured servants from England (15-30) (not black) 

• Offered a legal contract, you had passage paid to come to Jamestown if you harvest/work,  4-7 years of work 

• When completed you are given your own land, tobacco plantation, seeds, hoes and spades, opportunity to become wealthy 

Significance: 

• His success in cultivating high-quality tobacco made it the economic foundation of Virginia and the early American colonies.

• Tobacco became a major export, attracting new settlers and investors.

• His marriage to Pocahontas helped stabilize relations between colonists and Indigenous peoples for a short time.

The tobacco industry he started led to the growth of plantation agriculture and eventually the use of enslaved African labor, shaping the economy and social structure of the American South for centuries.

led to reliance on slave labor, division between the Northerners and Southerners and eventually the Civil War 

The Lost Colony of Roanoke

Private citizen Sir Walter Raleigh pushes Queen Elizabeth to get into the colonial game, Sir Walter funds but never travels, expeditions of 90-95 men to come to America  

• Find a piece of land that would be good for British to put down roots 

• Called Roanoke, island off north Carolina  

• Plant crops, explore land, and establish relationships with local indigenous tribes 

Initially good trade, communication, peaceful 

A settler woke up and discovered a silver cup of theirs was missing, decided the indigenous tribe came and stole it 

From this accident hell broke loose and British began to attack the indigenous 

• WAR 

• John White knows they don’t have enough men to fight, go back to England to get people, don’t come back till 1590 (2 years after started war) 

Empty settlement when they returned, everyone had disappeared  

• Carved into a tree was the word Croaton, name of neighboring island ??

• Walter Raleigh lost everything, thousands/millions of dollars 

• A single individual cannot finance British imperialism  

• Takes another 15 years for british to try again

Significance:

• Represented England’s early struggles to establish colonies in the New World.

• The mysterious disappearance caused fear and hesitation about future colonization efforts.

• The colony’s failure provided lessons that helped shape later successful English colonies like Jamestown (1607).

• Became one of America’s oldest unsolved mysteries, symbolizing the dangers and uncertainties of early colonization.

The Lowell System

An industrial labor and production system used in the early 19th century in the textile mills of Lowell, Massachusetts. Designed by Lowell who had a photographic memory and steals the design plans of textile mills in Britain.

It was designed to efficiently produce textiles while maintaining a controlled, moral workforce, mainly composed of young women known as Lowell Mill Girls.

• Workers live there in dormitories 

 

Lowell hires women to run factory floor 

• Was able to pay them cheaper wages due to gender relations 

• Had smaller hands to loom better 

• Women were seen as easier to control (don’t speak up as much) 

 

Women 

• Got jobs, paid, had financial career 

• Came from rural communities where financial security based on husband 

• Left not wanting to marry these men  

• Ability to escape their father's control, abusive family situation, etc. 

• Sense of freedom and independence (equal members of society) 

Factory life: 

• Changes most elements of life 

• You don’t own the product of your labor  

• Ruins concept of time (agricultural by sunup and sundown, seasons, factories was run by the clock) 

• Charles Dickens of London, comes and tours Lowell 

• Writes glowing report that Lowell is about freedom, independence and wealth and that they should be doing it across British and US 

• Missed the brutality of the work  

Real problems: 

• Work all week, mornings and night  

• Hard work, standing on feet with dangerous machinery  

• Hard to leave (impossible for them to leave, blacklisted) 

• Abused (physically, sexually, psychologically) no unions at the time 

 

Significance: 

• Created a new model of industrial labor in America.

• Provided economic opportunities for women, many of whom used their wages for education or to help their families.

• The working conditions were harsh—long hours and poor air quality—leading to early labor protests and the rise of worker activism

• Marked a major shift from home-based production to factory labor, helping launch America’s industrial economy.

• revealed the exploitation behind industrial capitalism

The Missouri Compromise

A U.S. federal law passed in 1820 that aimed to balance the number of slave and free states in the Union. It was proposed by Henry Clay to ease growing sectional tensions between the North and South over the expansion of slavery

Missouri applied for statehood as a slave state, which threatened to upset the balance in Congress (there were 11 free states and 11 slave states at the time)

Northern states opposed expanding slavery into new territories, while Southern states wanted to protect it.

Significance:

• Missouri was admitted as a slave state, and Maine (that separated from Massachusetts) was admitted as a free state, keeping the balance at 12 free and 12 slave states.

• The Compromise banned slavery in the north (except for Missouri) in the Louisiana Territory.

• Marked the first major attempt to manage sectional conflict over slavery through legislation.

• Set a precedent for how Congress would handle slavery in new territories.

• Eventually repealed by the Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854), which reignited tensions by allowing new territories to decide the issue of slavery themselves.

• Its breakdown exposed the limits of compromise on slavery and foreshadowed the Civil War (1861–1865).

Nat Turner’s Rebellion

• Virginia, August 1831 

• Born a slave in Viriginia  

• When born, his parents told him he’s special, told by God to free the slaves 

• He becomes self-taught in terms of literacy  

• Reads and studies Chirstian bible (knows moses and stories of slaves freed) 

• Mystic and preacher reputation 

 

• When putting his rebellion together, small elite group of 70 people 

• ARMY OF 70 

• no one will be spared 

• go from plantation to plantation  

Death march 

• Slaughters his own masters (children and parents) 

• All killed in their homes 

• Some whites escaped  

• Took authorities 2 months to find Nat Turner 

• Want a show trial  

• Nat turner is given opportunity by judge to speak 

• confessions of nat turner and lays out the horrors of slavery(first hand account of rapes, attacks, selling of children) 

• published around north 

• turner found guilty and is excecuted by hanging  

• Makes him a martyr  

Legacy 

• White people used him as a bogey man (do homework or turner is coming) 

• had to have been influenced by abolition movement 

Significance:

• Created widespread fear among white Southerners, leading to violent retaliation in which white militias and mobs killed innocent enslaved and free Black people.

• Southern states passed stricter slave codes, further restricting the movement, education, and assembly of enslaved people.

• Intensified tensions between North and South over the morality and security of the slave system

• Inspired abolitionists in the North, who used the rebellion to highlight the brutality and unsustainability of slavery.

• Nat Turner became a symbol of resistance and courage for later generations fighting for Black freedom and civil rights.

The Report on Public Credit

Financial plan written by Alexander Hamilton, the first U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, and presented to Congress in 1790. It outlined how the new federal government should manage the nation’s debt after the American Revolution.

Dealt with domestic debt of citizens and state 

1. Liberty bonds refunded at face value by government 

2. Federal government will assume all the state debt (20 mill) 

Controversy  

• War ended and plan is only good if you’re wealthy as you can keep bonds 

•  Speculators would go around and say they’ll buy your bond for $50, at a fraction of its value 

 

• Southern states already paid off their debts and don’t get federal money back then 

Only helps north and wealthy  

Significance:

• This plan helped establish national credit, making it easier for the U.S. to borrow money in the future.

• It also created tension between northern states (who supported it) and southern states (who opposed it), since the South had already paid off much of their debt.

• Laid the foundation for the modern American financial system.

• Strengthened the power of the federal government over the states.

• Contributed to the formation of political parties—Hamilton’s supporters (Federalists) backed a strong central government, while his opponents (Jeffersonian Republicans) feared centralized financial power.

Thomas Paine’s Common Sense

Bought the republican ideology, in Boston 

Works for Bejamin franklin 

• Writes a pamphlet called Common sense to spread propaganda standing up to England, argued for American independence from Britain

 

• Attempt to unite colonists  

• Absurdity hereditary of kings (epitome of intermarry, mentally unstable, criticizes divine rule of kings) 

• Economic benefits of independence (good for us economically, can trade with any other country, goods not taxed) 

• Cost analysis for American Military (can start own manufacturing and can afford to militarily fight the war (LIE))) 

• History of the crisis (didn’t start this march to independence, just wanted representation and England forced them to this mess) 

 

Pamphlet sold 50 000 copies, short term uniting colonists  

Significance: 

• Persuaded many colonists that breaking from Britain was necessary and justified.

• Attacked the monarchy and hereditary rule, arguing that kings were unnatural and corrupt.

• Advocated for a republican form of government, where power rests with the people rather than a king.

• Helped galvanize support for the Declaration of Independence (July 1776).

• Contributed to the spread of revolutionary ideas about liberty, democracy, and human rights.

• Inspired future movements advocating self-governance and republicanism around the world.

Anne Hutchinson

-   Status (mom, wife, 15 children)

-   Was a Midwife, essentially nurse and doctor, assistance in birth or people hurt

o   Becomes a confident, essentially becoming a therapist when treating people

§  People expressed dislike of Winthrop

 Dangerous

o   Had Bible study at her home rather than listening to Winthrop at church

§  Expressed views of sermon

o   Women had power from job, allowing people to debate and challenge religious structure of colony

-   Winthrop march into her house and arrest her, putting her on show trial to make an example

-  Referred to as a whore, punished by being walked back to her house and watched her and her family pack her things and pushed out of colony

o   5 of her children murdered by indigenous raids

o   Makes her way to Rhode Island and ends up in New Jersey

Significance:

• Became a symbol of religious freedom, women’s rights, and freedom of conscience in American history.

• Her defiance challenged the authority of male religious leaders and paved the way for greater religious pluralism in the colonies

• 1994 was inducted into the American women's hall of fame, labelled America's first feminist

  
  Her leadership foreshadowed later movements for women’s rights, including the Seneca Falls Convention (1848)

• Her story foreshadowed later debates over church-state separation, such as Jefferson’s Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom (1786) and the First Amendment (1791).

Dred Scott v Sandford

·      Slave born in Virginia

o      His master was a surgeon in the US military

·      Goes to Illinois, free state in the1830s

o      Dred Scott illegally marries a slave woman

o      Mom gives birth to their daughter in a free state

·      Master died, 1843, Scott tries to buy his freedom

o      Masters' kids say no

 

·   Dred Scott reads abolitionist information

·      With help of abolitionists he sues for his daughter’s freedom, 1846

o   Who was Born to a slave mom but in a free state

·      Makes way to Supreme Court

o      6 out of 9 justices are slave owners

 

  Chief Justice Roger Taney

o      Racist, slave owner

 Decision:

§     Turns over Missouri compromise as unconstitutional

§     Slaves are property, Dred Scott has no standing to bring this case

§     Blacks aren’t citizens

§     Wrote: Blacks had for more than a century been regarded as inferior

·      Any African American had no rights. Not even 3/5 of a person

 

Significance:

• Major victory for pro-slavery forces: The ruling expanded the legal protection of slavery and opened all western territories to it.

• Outraged abolitionists and Northern states,

• Strengthened the newly formed Republican Party, which opposed the expansion of slavery, and pushed the nation closer to Civil War.

• The Civil War (1861–1865) and the 13th (abolishing slavery) and 14th (granting citizenship and equal protection)Amendments completely overturned the Dred Scott decision.

Multiple lectures:

Pre–Civil War Era):

• Connected to the Missouri Compromise (1820) and the Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854) — both attempts to balance or decide where slavery could exist.

• The ruling invalidated the Missouri Compromise, escalating tensions that led directly to Lincoln’s election (1860)and Southern secession.

The Civil War and Reconstruction:

• The injustice of the Dred Scott decision helped justify the Civil War in the eyes of many Northerners.

• Civil rights act of 1866 overturns Dred Scott, granting slaves citizenship

Overturned by the 13th and 14th Amendments (1865–1868), which granted freedom, citizenship, and equal protection under the law to African Americans.
Connection: The case directly shaped the constitutional changes of Reconstruction

The Fugitive Slave Act

In Henry Clay’s compromise of 1850

The Fugitive Slave Act was a federal law that required the capture and return of escaped enslaved people to their enslavers, even if they were found in free states.

·      Problem with runaway slaves

o      slave owners want their slaves back

·      Gives more power to slave owners to capture their runaway slaves, ability to go into northern states to hunt them down

·      Gives The federal government power to help slave owners

o      Creates US marshals tasked with hunting down runaway slaves

o      When slaves are captured, they’re afforded a trial but didn’t really

§     Opportunity to go against it, however, slaves have no rights so its a PR move

 

Implications

·      Those who aid slaves will be fined and jailed

·      In Boston, 1851

o      Runaway slave was captured and there is a trial

o      A group of African American broke in, kidnapped the runaway slave and took him to Canada for freedom

·      Boston 1854

o      Runaway slave captured, trial

o      Court had security but abolitionists still tried to get slave to Canada but failed

o      Army is sent in to march the slave from courthouse to a ship to go to his plantation in the south

Significance:

• Required citizens and local authorities in all states (even free ones) to assist in the capture of runaway enslaved people.

• Denied alleged fugitives the right to a jury trial and increased penalties for anyone helping them escape.

• Caused outrage in the North and strengthened the abolitionist movement.

• Led to violent resistance and the rise of the Underground Railroad (figures like Harriet Tubman

• Highlighted the moral and political divide over slavery in America.

• Helped fuel the growth of the anti-slavery Republican Party (founded in 1854)

In lectures:

• Connects directly to the Compromise of 1850, the Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854), and Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857)—all events that deepened the divide between North and South.

• Helped polarize the nation, setting the stage for Lincoln’s election (1860) and Southern secession (1861).

John Brown

·  Referred to as a saint, martyr, lunatic, devil

·    White abolitionist born in Connecticut

·      Father connected to underground railroad, he grew up knowing and talking about Frederick Douglas and slavery

·      Committed to the abolition of slavery and equality

·      Had 20 kids and turns them into an army of abolitionists

 

Action:

Bleeding Kansas

·      They march into Kansas, 1885

·      Armed to the teeth

·      Rampage, 1856

o      Takes page from Nat Turner, break into homes of slave owners and dragged the male slave owners into the streets killing them

·      Retaliation

o      Violent, 2 sons of his ‘army’ shot and killed by slave owners

 Raid on Harpers Ferry (1859):

• Brown led a small group (including both Black and white men who helped plan and finance it) to seize the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia.

• His goal: to arm enslaved people and start a massive slave uprising across the South.

• The plan failed — local militia and U.S. Marines led by Robert E. Lee captured him.

• Brown was tried for treason and hanged

Significance:

• The raid terrified the South, convincing many white Southerners that the North supported slave revolts and violence.

o  First time southerners talk about succession

• Brown became a martyr for the abolitionist cause in the North.

• His actions further deepened sectional tensions and made civil war seem inevitable.

• His willingness to die for abolition inspired future generations of civil rights activists

Lectures:

Escalating Sectionalism

Connects to the Fugitive Slave Act (1850), Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857), and Bleeding Kansas — all part of the escalating conflict over slavery.

Ties into the Second Great Awakening and the moral reform movements of the 19th century.

• Shows how religion motivated social and political action in U.S. history.

Joseph Smith

Founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), commonly known as the Mormon Church. He claimed to have received divine revelations that led to the creation of a new religious movement in 19th-century America

Smith was born in Vermont and grew up in New York during the Second Great Awakening

In this environment, Smith said he experienced visions from God and Jesus Christ.

• 1820s: Smith claimed to have been visited by an angel named Moroni, who directed him to golden plates inscribed with ancient scripture.

• 1830: He translated these plates into The Book of Mormon, which he said told the story of ancient peoples in the Americas and their encounters with God.

Owns his own church

Everyone has their own personal connection to God

·      Altnerate religious society in the US

o   Doesn’t sit well with Christians , anger directed towards smith and mormons

 

·      Move to Western Illinois for safe refuge

o   In western Illinois issue of polygamy believing it’s what god required of them

As the Mormon movement grew, it faced suspicion, hostility, and violence from surrounding communities.

o   Joseph Smith and his brother are arrested

o   When the Sherrif left the door to the jail open because a mob broke in, dragged them out of jail and murdered them

·      Makes Joseph Smith a martyr dying for his belief

Significance:

• Smith’s death caused a leadership crisis within the Mormon Church.

• His successor, Brigham Young, led the majority of Mormons westward to Utah in 1847 — marking one of the most famous mass religious migrations in U.S. history.

• Mormon communities established Utah Territory, which became a center of settlement and expansion in the American West.

• grew into one of the largest and most influential religious movements to originate in the United States.

  Smith’s ideas about revelation, scripture, and community helped define American religious innovation.

  The early persecution Mormons faced became an example of the struggle for religious freedom and tolerance in U.S. history.

Lecture slides:

Second great awakening ( religious experimentation)

Westward expansion ( development of the American frontier)

The Louisiana Purchase

A land deal between the United States and France, in which the U.S. bought about 828,000 square miles of territory west of the Mississippi River for $15 million.
It doubled the size of the United States and became one of the most important land acquisitions in American history.

• France, under Napoleon Bonaparte, controlled the Louisiana Territory but was facing wars in Europe and a costly slave revolt in Haiti (Saint-Domingue).

• Napoleon decided to sell the territory to raise money for his wars and cut his losses in the Americas.

• US ends up buying port of New Orleans and whole area from the French for 15 million  

  Best real-estate deal in history 3 ½ cents an acre 

  Keeps the French out of north America

Significance:

Doubled the size of the U.S

Led to the Lewis and Clark Expedition (1804–1806) (mapping the area)

Sparked new conflicts with indigenous peoples

• Cemented the idea of Manifest Destiny — the belief that the U.S. was destined to expand across the continent.

• Strengthened the U.S. both economically and strategically, making it a major power in North America.

• Increased tensions over slavery — whether new territories would permit it — which would later contribute to the Civil War.

Lectures:

• Tied to Hamilton’s Report on Public Credit and early debates over how the young nation should grow economically and politically.

 Westward Expansion & Manifest Destiny

Expansion into the Louisiana Territory led to forced removals and conflicts with Indigenous nations, connecting to policies like the Indian Removal Act (1830).

Slavery and Sectionalism

• Raised the question of whether new territories would allow slavery,

Manifest Destiny

Manifest Destiny was a 19th-century belief that the United States was destined by God to expand westward across the North American continent, spreading democracy, Christianity, and civilization.

• The U.S. had already gained vast lands through the Louisiana Purchase (1803), and settlers were moving west for land, opportunity, and economic freedom.

• It was closely tied to nationalism, religious conviction, and the belief that American culture was superior

Significance:

• Encouraged mass migration westward (Oregon Trail, California Gold Rush).

• Led to major territorial acquisitions, including:

  • Texas (1845)

  • Oregon Territory (1846)

  • Mexican Cession (1848) after the Mexican-American War

• Set a precedent for American imperialism

• Deepened divisions between North and South over whether slavery should expand westward, which contributed to the Civil War.

• Resulted in devastating consequences for Indigenous nations—mass displacement, loss of land, and destruction of cultures.

• Influenced U.S. identity — the belief in American exceptionalism

Lectures:

Early Expansion (1803–1840s)

• Connects to the Louisiana Purchase (1803), Lewis and Clark Expedition, and Indian Removal Act (1830) as early examples of expansionist thinking.

• Mexican-American War (1846–1848)

  • Manifest Destiny was used to justify the war

• The question of whether new territories gained through expansion would allow slavery led to the Missouri Compromise (1820), Compromise of 1850, and Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854).

The Monroe Doctrine

After the Napoleonic Wars, many Latin American colonies were gaining independence from Spain and Portugal.

The U.S. and Britain both wanted to prevent European nations (especially the Holy Alliance of Russia, Austria, and Prussia) from trying to recolonize or interfere in the newly independent states.

• President James Monroe declared that the Western Hemisphere was closed to further European colonization and that the U.S. would stay out of European affairs. 

• Concern with non-white, non-Christian countries don’t have ability to govern themselves, fear of chaos  

  

• America is terrified another European will come in during chaos and colonize them   

  

Monroe outlines 4 major components of doctrine  

• US will not tolerate any country coming into to do future colonization  

• If you attempt colonization, US will see this as a threat to national security   

• Will not get involved in existing colonies (Spanish, French, British)  

• Reaffirms policy of neutrality, US will stay out of Internal European affairs   

  

Implications:  

• Immediately it didn’t do much  

• In 1823, US isn’t militarily strong enough to stop any countries coming into re-colonize mexico for example  

• Doctrine is just a statement of goals  

 

Long term implications:  

• Once US becomes militarily strong, US will claim area and take any attacks seriously   

 

Lecture:

James Monroe and the Era of Good Feelings 

Manifest Destiny & Expansion

The Radical Republicans

The Radical Republicans were a faction within the U.S. Republican Party during and after the Civil War

This group strongly opposed slavery and sought full civil and political rights for freed African Americans after emancipation. (citizenship)

Led by leaders like Thaddeus Stevens (american politician and abolitionist)

• Push Lincoln to abolish slavery immediately  

• Want to overturn dred v scott decision, give everyone Equality, Black people to become American citizens and gain full rights  

• Want to Destroy the south, punish them 

Advocate and push for the The Freedman’s Bureau, March 1865 (

Significance:

• Passed the Civil Rights Act of 1866, the Reconstruction Acts, and helped ratify the 14th and 15th Amendments, which granted citizenship and voting rights to African Americans.

• Impeached President Andrew Johnson in 1868 (he was acquitted by one vote).

• Placed Southern states under military rule until they accepted new constitutions guaranteeing Black rights

Established the constitutional foundation for civil rights and equal protection under the law.

Lectures: 

The Civil War I

The Civil War II (lincoln and the union)

Reconstruction (Johnson’s plan to punish the south)

The Seneca Falls Declaration of Sentiments 

A landmark document written primarily by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and signed at the Seneca Falls Convention in Seneca Falls, New York, in 1848 — the first women’s rights convention in U.S. history. Modeled after the Declaration of Independence, it outlined the injustices faced by women and demanded equal rights, including the right to vote

In New York  

• Women’s rights Convention 

• Called for a convention  to discuss social, civil and religious rights 

• Over 3 days, 1^st day only women could go and speak voices, 2^nd and 3^rd day, men came to actually be allies to change the laws  

• 150 people came and at the end, they put out their manifesto 

 

The Declaration of Sentiments  

• Took declaration of independence to include feminism   

Resolution 

• Full equal rights to testify 

• Equal rights to property 

• Equal rights to file/sue for a divorce and get alimony 

• Equal right to an education (high school or a university) 

• Equal right to have a role in religion (be ministers or priests) 

• Right to vote 

 

Right to vote went too far

Significance:

• Marked the formal beginning of the organized women’s rights movement in the United States.

• Generated controversy and ridicule, but it united early feminists around specific demands — especially suffrage (the vote).

Lectures:

Revivalism and Reform in America

inspired movements for abolition, temperance, prison reform, education reform, and ultimately women’s rights.

The civil war: women’s contributions during the war (nursing, managing homes, organizing supplies) proved their capability and strengthened postwar arguments for women’s suffrage.